Famous Theories of Depression

Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory of Depression

Psychologist Albert Bandura's developed a social cognitive theory of depression, which suggested that people are shaped and influenced by their interactions between behaviors, thoughts and environmental factors. He stated human behavior is largely a product of learning. Bandura emphasized how depressed people’s self concepts are different from those not suffering depression and those depressed tend to hold themselves responsible for every bad thing they had a fixation with self-blame. On the other hand people suffer from depression tend to view success as a triumph caused by outside factors, leading to levels of low self esteem. Due this people with depression usually set their goals too high and then feel hopeless when they don’t reach them. The repeated sense of failure overwhelms their life and leads to cognitive depression. Bandura believes the interaction between the outside world and their low-self esteem is the main cause for depression.

Julian Rotter’s Theory of Depression

Rotter’s theory focuses on the concept of locus of control. The concept of locus of control believes that people feel they can’t alter of affect their situations and they are manipulated and control by external factors. This is referred to as an external locus of control. Rotter believes people who suffer form depression believe they can’t control their situation and circumstances and are controlled by their environment leading to a continuous sense of helplessness and a low self-esteem. Rotter’s theory mainly believes in the sense of helplessness an external locus of control creates and causes in an individual leading to a state of depression.

Aaron Beck’s Theory of Depression

According to Aaron Beck, negative thoughts, generated by dysfunctional beliefs are the primary causes of depressive symptoms. He believes there is a direct relationship between the amount of negative thoughts someone has and the severity of their depressive symptoms. He strongly suggests the more negative thoughts someone has the more depressed that person will become. Beck also supports the idea that there are three main ways depressed people think

1) I am defective or inadequate

2) All my experiences result in failure

3) The future has no hope

The three of these thinking styles combined make up the Negative Cognitive Triad. Beck states that when these three beliefs are present depression most likely will occur. The negative trias beliefs lead to a sense of self-helplessness and self-failure, which dominates in a depressed persons state of mind. Beck also believes this thinking style makes depressed people focus more on the negative aspects of their reality to confirm their “failure”. Beck concludes that negative thinking style leads to negative lifestyle and self-helplessness, which dominates cognitive depression and blocks out any positive vibes.

Martin Seligman Theory of Depression

Martin Seligman accidentally discovered an unexpected relationship between human depression and dogs, while studying learning in dogs and fear. Seligman studied what happened when a dog was allowed to escape shock from a designated area, during the second part of his experiment Seligman positioned the conditioned dog into a box with two compartments divided by a low fence. Even though the dog could easily jump the fence, the dog lay down when the shock was being administered. The conditioned dog had learned that trying to escape the shocks was useless and learned to be “helpless”. This experiment form Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness, which was extended to human in order to explain depression. Seligman believes depressed people have learned to be helpless and depressed and feel they have no control over their environment, just like the dog had no control over the shocks. Seligman also concluded that depressed people tend to have a more pessimistic thinking style which leads to a predominating negative aura in your life. Seligman states that prolonged exposure to negative experiences contributes to a pessimistic thinking style and eventually depression.

Source:http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=13008&cn=5

The Lobotomist-Walter Freeman

The program The Lobotomist focuses on Dr. Walter Freeman, the creation of the lobotomy procedure and the consequences this brought to his career. Dr. Walter Freeman desired to treat the hundreds of psychiatric patients that needed help during the twentieth century. These poor patients lived under horrible conditions in warehouses where they were treated inhumanly and had no hope for a better future. Dr. Walter Freeman started the perfection of the lobotomy in search of a cheaper and accessible cure for psychiatric patients. He wanted to provide a miraculous cure for them. Dr. Freeman started improving a Portuguese neurologist technique call the lobotomy, which would reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. At a fast rate he would sleep patients insert an ice pick trough their peeled eyeball and lid. He would then tap the ice pick with a surgical hammer and break through the orbital cavity of the eye to the prefrontal lobe. He would wiggle the ice pick to sever the frontal lobes and then finally end the procedure. The procedure would leave patients emotionless and with severely bruised eyes for several days. The procedure seemed to “cure” several patients and take away their maniac style for sometime. The lobotomy was soon employed around asylums in the united states where Freeman quickly acquired a reputation for curing mentally ill and even performed 40 lobotomies a day. Walter Freeman was also characterized for performing for large crowds to impress them and create a medical shock. Freeman was in the height of his career when several patients developed complications and even died from hemorrhages during the procedure. Dr. Freeman even killed a patient when carelessly taking a picture during the ice pick perforated his brain. Soon Freeman’s reputation ended and the “pill” was developed. The pill had the same effect as the lobotomy and had reduced consequences and did not include any dangerous procedure. A decade later the procedure was viewed as barbaric and Freeman was ordered to halt any procedures in asylums or hospitals. Freeman was soon rejected by the board of doctors and viewed as a moral monster. Many claim Freeman was driven by ambition but I personally believe his first intentions were honest and he was offering the only available cure to those hopeless patients. Freeman was destroyed when America began to view him as a monster, his career had ended horribly. I believe Freeman greatly contributed to the treatment of mentally ill patients and should always be attributed with that recognition, even though his procedure was not medically ethical it was the only option at that time.

The Lobotomist: A review - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/54179/#ixzz1HC0NtJqo

Boy Interrupted

The film Boy Interrupted focuses on the intimate story of Evan Harris, which suffers from bipolar disease. His parents, Hart and Dana, which record Evan’s marked change in attitude, and his maniac cycles, created the film. I personally find very intriguing how they mentioned Evan’s degree of happiness equaled his intensity of anger or sadness. In the film you can see how the nuclear family like his stepbrother and parents struggle with the severe mood swings and tried to help him grip the illness. I believe taking Evan to the medical institute which treated bipolar was a smart choice because sometimes something so delicate needs to be supervised by medical figures. I also find very interesting how even though Evan was receiving medical treatment and visiting a psychiatrists and was achieving good grades in New York and even won the Science fair, inside he was falling apart. I believe to a certain point there is not much the parents and family can do because like Evan he kept his feelings to himself and only recorded his true emotions in his diary. The way even died I believe was very tragic and the fact that he had a prior argument with his mom, probably makes Dana feel guilty. Though I believe it was no one’s fault and Evan was aware he was going to have to dealt with that interior struggle all his life and wanted to put an end to the suffering. In the funeral it was very hard watching all the family crumble apart and special the grandmother, which felt she was living the story of her bipolar son once again. I believe for Evan’s family communication should be very important and the escape of all sadness and guilt. I believe Evan’s story should be a lessons and warning for all those family’s dealing with members, which suffer from bipolar, Evan’s story should embrace the need of medical help and the fact that his decision to end with his life was not fully controlled by him but by his disorder. Boy Interrupted truly portrays the struggle of the Perry’s family and their love towards Evan.